Focus on testing hurts health students.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

High school health education classes fail to help students refuse sexual advances or endorse safe sex habits when teachers focus primarily on testing knowledge, asserts a study by Ohio State University, Columbus; the University of Kentucky, Lexington; and George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. However, when teachers emphasize learning material for its own sake and to improve health, students have a much better response. In these types of classrooms, students have lower intentions of having sex and feel better able to navigate sexual situations.

"In health education, knowledge is not the most important outcome. What we really want to do is change behaviors, and testing is not the way to achieve that," insists Eric M. Andes, lead author of the study and professor of educational psychology at OSU.

"Focusing on knowledge concerning health does not equate to healthy behavior. It's more important for the students to improve their health than it is to get...